Wallowa Countys latest difficulty dealing with the federal government took center stage Monday morning near the end of a regular Wallowa County Board of Commissioners meeting. The audience was small, but all in attendance knew the significance of what was being discussed.

The topic, not on the agenda and only addressed when citizen Ben Tippett brought up the issue during the public comment portion of the meeting, was Wallupa Road.

Wallupa Road, a main arterial leading from high ground to the Grande Ronde River near Troy, in northern Wallowa County, was severely damaged by flooding March 10 and has yet to be repaired.

The reason for the delay became clear at the meeting Monday, May 19.

Commissioner Mike Hayward, acknowledging that Wallupa Road is valuable for the hauling of timber and for rafters and fishers access to that portion of the Grande Ronde River, said the Bureau of Land Management is threatening repercussions if Wallowa County, as it has in the past, repairs the road without implementing federal guidelines. Primarily, in this instance, the BLM is speaking of an environmental assessment, which that federal agency now is in the process of drafting.

Hayward points out that, although Wallowa County does not have an easement along Wallupa Road, the county has maintained that road for 60 years. And flood damage to Wallupa Road, like that at Wildcat Creek in March, is not an uncommon occurrence. In 2012, after a flood of less severity occurred, Hayward ordered the Wallowa County Road Department to remove gravel and debris from Wallupa Road once the waters receded. The BLM then threatened legal action; its primary concern likely being endangered fish in the waters.

In defense of his decision made in March for the county not to repair the road as it has in the past, but instead to cooperate with the BLM, Hayward said, I wasnt willing to put our road crew in jeopardy of a fine, or even being placed in jail. Hayward feared a fine as weighty as $500,000 this time around for noncompliance.

The current damage to Wallupa Road is far more severe than in 2012. Hayward said at one spot on the road the entire road is washed out, and at another place half of the road has been eaten away.

The impassible road is not going unnoticed. Hayward said that Hancock Timber, the largest private landowner in Wallowa County that harvests many trees in the localized area, has contacted BLM expressing the importance of Wallupa Road to their logging operations. Too, the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife has expressed a similar sentiment to the BLM, as has U.S. Representative Greg Walden, who has encouraged the BLM to speed up the process.

Hayward, who has been negotiating on Wallupa Road repairs for more than two months now, says the BLM has committed to have the road back in operational condition some time between July 1 and Aug. 15, the ESA-approved end water work window for such in-stream work. The BLM never has wavered from its plan that, once the EA is completed and work resumes, that such work be conducted by the Wallowa County Road Department. An important element of those negotiations, says Hayward, deals with the hope that Wallowa County can procure a long-term easement along Wallupa Road to prevent similar turf wars in the future.

This would be significant, says Hayward, because Environmental Assessments typically take from one to two years to complete, while this one is being fast-tracked to be completed in about two months.

While discussions about Wallupa Road are underway, Tippett laments, The federal government effectively has shut down this county.

Another citizen who attended Mondays commissioners meeting, Don Bronson, added, Those fish got more rights than we do.

Hayward says he plans to contact the BLM two or three times a week.

Hopefully, this is the best solution to keep everyone out of jail and prevent a big fine, Hayward said.